Att gräva efter Europas skugga

Undersökningar av spansk kontaktperiod på boplatsområdet Pichao, Tucumán, Argentina

Abstract

”To dig in the shade from Europe: investigations of the Spanish Contact Period on the settlement site at Pichao, Tucumán, Agentine”: This article gives a concise presentation of the results of archaeological investigations at the site of Pichao in the Santa María Valley, Tucumán, North-western Argentina (see Stenborg 2002b). The main focus is on the so-called Spanish Native Period (c. A.D. 1536-1660), during which this region managed to resist the Spanish attempts to gain control. At present the knowledge of this period is highly limited and almost exclusively based on written sources. Concerning earlier periods, particularly the Regional Development Period (c. A.D. 900-1480), the archaeological knowledge is far better. The results of the investigations at Pichao suggest that vast changes occurred during the 16th and 17th centuries, and that the societies depicted by Spanish sources may have showed little resemblance with those of earlier epochs.